A makeshift memorial was set up on Bay Street in Moreno Valley in June 2011, where Chelsia Joyce, 17, was found fatally shot in her car. The convicted gang member who killed her was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, May 22.

Devastated family members and a family friend took measured solace in the life-without-parole sentence meted out to a gang member Friday.

Antoine Dion Ratcliffe was sentenced after being found guilty of the 2011 shooting death of a Moreno Valley girl who, tragically, was in the way during a retaliatory shooting.

The pain of loss remains, her smile only a memory, for those who loved Chelsia Joyce, a 17-year-old Canyon Springs High School student. After an end-of-the-school-year party, she parked her car in a nearby Bay Street residential neighborhood so some of her four girlfriend passengers could talk to teenage boys they knew who were on foot.

One of the boys hurled a gang slur at a passing car identified with a rival gang, prompting Ratcliffe, a passenger in that car, to get out and run toward the girls’ car firing a gun wildly, including firing a close-up shot into the driver’s side window, according to trial testimony. Joyce, who was shot, died later at a hospital.

Ratcliffe, now 24, was convicted by a jury in April of murder, five counts of attempted murder, one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle, one count of participation in a criminal street gang and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

“I was with Chelsia’s mother when we picked out clothes in a shopping mall to bury her child in,” Earnest Davis, a family friend who had known the teen for six years, said during the court sentencing hearing. “Words can not explain her hurt and pain,” he said of the victim’s mother, Cassandra Joyce.

After the gang call-out, Ratcliffe “didn’t need to stop,” said Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz. He called it a senseless crime because of “the idea that five girls in a vehicle that had absolutely nothing to do with a gang, that had absolutely nothing to do with criminal activity became the victims in this case.”

As his mother rested a hand on his shoulder, Joyce’s brother, Justin Joyce, shared how their father died in 2003 and how his mom enjoyed fixing up his sister’s hair and mother-daughter shopping trips.

It does not take away the pain, but he said the sentence “guarantees he (Ratcliffe) will never be released to a civilized society.”

Outside court the brother said his younger sister liked to have fun with her friends and wanted to be a pastry chef, already known for baking cakes. “I can’t see her, I only have memories of her,” he said.

Ratcliffe’s attorneys, Joel Renk and Brian Cosgrove, indicated in court that neither the defendant nor his mother or sister would make any statements.

Joyce’s aunt, Linda Hazard, talked about the devastation to her family of Joyce’s death and said, “We carry Chelsia in our hearts.” Addressing Ratcliffe she urged him to “make peace with yourself and with God.”

Prosecutor Daima Calhoun said Ratcliffe’s criminal history showed a “great pattern of violence.”

Joyce’s brother said the state made a mistake in releasing a known gang felon from state prison, which happened two months before his sister was killed.

In 2007, members of a rival gang walking down a street were shot at by a carload of rival gang members, according to testimony and court records. His older brother, the shooter, is serving time in state prison. Ratcliffe pleaded guilty to assault with a firearm, with gang allegations, and served time in juvenile hall and state prison.

Gail Wesson has covered news for The Press-Enterprise for decades, mostly in Riverside County, with occasional forays across the county line. Datelines on her stories span the county – from the state agricultural inspection station in Blythe, to the Circle in Corona, the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Mira Loma, Temecula before there were traffic signals and to the highest point in the county, Mount San Jacinto. Most of her time has been spent covering local governments or how county, state or federal government affects communities. Breaking news, from floods to wild land fires and the consequences of disasters, watchdog reporting, criminal courts coverage and environmental explainers on water rights/supply issues and why bald eagles and San Bernardino kangaroo rats should be saved are icing on her news cake.